INTO THE FIRE (Forbidden Love) by DANIELLE JAMES

didn’t.
    I told you to leave me alone , she growled. Now look what’s happened .
    “You could have told me,” he ground out.
    Shut up .
    Leigh leaned her head down so that she was nearly nose to nose with him. She snorted and blew a puff of smoke in his face from her nostrils. Then, she sniffed him.
    Rebel smelled so good. The dumb shit didn’t have the sense of a rock, but damn if she couldn’t just eat him up. His eyes were full of trust and… adoration? Surely she was mistaken. Not possible. He had just seen what she was.
    While keeping him pinned beneath her claw, Leigh dropped her snout to sniff him again. She inhaled the scent of his hair, noting the shampoo he used. She sniffed his neck and his shoulders. She wanted to commit that wonderful earthy smell to memory, seeing as how he would likely run for the hills the moment she released him. She could feel his body under the sensitive skin of her claw, could feel that he was laying perfectly still. Smartest thing he’s done so far.
    No, on second thought, he wasn’t sitting still. His hips were wiggling slightly under the pressure she was exerting on him. And what was that? Not his guns, they were too high up for… Aw, shit. He was getting a freaking boner. Leigh jerked her claw back and took two steps back.
    You are seriously screwed up , she told him.
    Rebel shifted to his feet and brushed himself off. “I like powerful women, what can I say?”
    Leigh made a harrumph noise and pulled on her magic. She shifted down to her human size again and regarded Rebel with wary eyes. She noticed his friends coming out into the open out of the corner of her eye. “What do you want from me?” she asked him.
    “I want to know you, to protect you.”
    “Yeah, that’s likely. You just want to be able to say you’ve banged the last female dragon on Earth. Well, sorry. Not going to happen.”
    “It’s not that,” he started, but Angel interrupted.
    “What happened to the other one? Is it dead?”
    “Ha! I wish.” Leigh shook her head. “No, he just jumped somewhere else to lick his wounds. Merrick will be back.”
    “So you know him?” Rebel asked.
    “Yeah, I do. He’s the man who came to your house today.”
    “I knew I didn’t like him,” Rebel straightened his hat. “So, is he really your fiancé?”
    “No. No. And NO. He thinks that because we are the last of our kind that I should want to mate with him.”
    Rebel growled deep in his chest. “I don’t think so.”
    “Well, Stalker-boy, on that we agree.”
    “I don’t mean to put a wrench in everybody’s morning, but it’s going to be dawn soon,” Gage pointed out.
    “I’ll get the truck,” Sebastian offered.
    “Coming with,” Antonio said.
    “Leigh, will you accompany us to our hotel?” Angel asked. “We have the penthouse suite at the Mirage. There will be plenty of room.”
“Why?”
    “Because I would personally like to know more about you, because we want you to be safe, because Rebel needs to redeem himself.”
    “Hey!” Rebel snapped.
    “Well you do,” Angel retorted. Someone else chuckled. Leigh didn’t see who it was, but she had a good feeling that it was the one with all the jewelry on his face.
    “Come on,” Rebel urged Leigh. “Hot shower, clean bed, good food. What have you got to lose?”
    A nice shower did sound good. And food. Besides, this had been all his fault, right? So she should let him pay for it a bit. At least, that’s what she told herself as she dropped her bag in the Escalade and took a back seat. Merrick would need time to recover, and if Leigh didn’t use her power, he wouldn’t know where to find her. Really, Rebel was fascinating, and she wanted to stick with him a little bit more.
     

EIGHT
    The penthouse suite at the Mirage was exactly what Leigh had expected. Nice furniture, heavy drapes, three sleeping rooms. There were three full bathrooms and a full kitchen. The first thing on Leigh’s agenda was breakfast.
    When she opened the